It Had To Be You
by AWildLittleVixenWhoWrites
Summary: au eclipse, paul x oc, humor/romance/fluff - Since the 9th grade, Paul Lahote and Delilah Rowan haven't exactly gotten along with each other, but when Paul Lahote imprints, it's on her. Hilarity and tension, anger and of course fluff ensues. But will they ultimately find a way to reveal true feelings? And how will things actually go for the two?
1. Stop Staring At Me

ONE

"Pair off, students. I'll give you exactly five minutes to choose your groupwork partner for the year. If you haven't chosen one by the end of the five minutes then I'll choose for you." the teacher remarked sternly as the door to the classroom opened and Paul Lahote's head shot up and his eyes darted around the room.

He smelled cotton candy. The scent was strong enough and enticing enough that he felt saliva actually beginning to form in his mouth and he found himself unable to stop licking his lips. His eyes landed on the raven haired girl leaned in the doorway looking as if she'd rather be anywhere than here right now, bored expression on her face.

In his mind, he could see them on dates, he could see him holding her against him as they slow danced at prom.. He could see graduation, how she jumped the gate to the football field, ran straight into his arms, kissing him all over the face. He could see her wearing white, he could see them settled down, a boring night in when they were much older. The images were so vivid, so real that he couldn't help but cough a little, shifting in his seat at some of them he'd seen.

A foil gum wrapper bounced off of his ear and he turned around giving the guy behind him the death glare a moment. Jared leaned across the aisle and asked with an amused look, " Are you okay, Paul? You look dazed right now, man."

Paul grumbled, turned to the front and raised his hand, eying the girl in the front of the classroom. " Hey Ms. Harper.. I'll work with her." Paul volunteered, surprising himself, the teacher and apparently the girl with the long dark hair, russet skin, shining chocolatey eyes and red sundress.

"After you've signed your tardy, Ms. Rowan, you may take the seat next to Paul Lahote.. Since he seems to want you to be his partner for the year." the teacher said, eying Paul with a look in her eyes as if to silently say, 'If this is your usual funny business, Paul Lahote..'

He ignored the look of course and turned to look at Jared because he felt Jared eying him intently.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm good, why?"

"Because you and Delilah Rowan have always hated each other, maybe? Or you're always making fun of her. She didn't change that much over summer..." Jared's voice fell away as he realized what had just happened to his best friend and lightly punched Paul's upper arm.

"Yeah, well, maybe I was lyin." Paul grumbled as he watched her walking towards him warily, watched her sitting down warily, watched her taking out her books and her pens, watched how she carefully arranged everything.

The wrist full of bracelets she wore jingled lightly each time she moved and he found himself smiling a little when nobody was looking at him.

She was his.

He wanted to laugh a little at the irony in the situation, really. As much as they'd always argued, as much as they seemed to dislike each other.. The way he'd get angry before the imprint when he'd see her hanging out after school with some nerdy guy named Felix and the rest of her artsy / hippie friends.

She always had marker or paint or dried clay on her hands and once, he'd seen her at lunch making a flower crown which she'd come to class wearing tilted slightly on her long dark hair.

She was the exact opposite of the kind of girl he'd pictured himself imprinting on eventually.

But she was his everything now, his entire world and she had no idea.

He felt a tap to his upper arm and he turned, he came face to face with her.

"Can you stop staring at me?"

"Huh?" Paul managed to say finally. The cocky act came back and he chuckled then said "Me.. Lookin at you.. You have got to be kidding me."

"Either way, ass. Can you direct your eyes elsewhere? It's unnerving." Delilah said as she twisted the pen in her hand between her fingers and gave him an annoyed look. Paul Lahote was a notorious flirt. He was also a really big jerk and the two of them hadn't gotten along since she'd moved to La Push when she was in the ninth grade.

But secretly, though it was shallow to admit and it made her feel disgusting and shallow knowing she felt it and could not shut it off for the life of her, she'd probably had a really deep and serious crush on him for every bit of the time.

She'd been good at hiding it, however.

She started the assignment, she felt eyes on her again, intently and looked up, poked out her tongue as she completely turned in her seat, facing outward, the other side of the classroom, tucking her legs into her seat, sort of sitting on them.

She still felt eyes on her and she looked up, sliding her middle finger along the side of her face slowly. Why was he staring at her like that?

And why was her heart hammering a thousand erratic miles in her chest currently?

He was popular, he was well known and kinda infamous for the fights he'd been in in previous years, the way he went through girls like a fish drank water.

He was the polar opposite of everything Delilah had already decided that she wasn't settling for less than in a guy.

Yet she still found herself drawn to him.

And before now, she hadn't really even known that he knew she existed unless of course he was picking on her, teasing her or making shitty comments to her to make her angry, make them fight and ultimately making them storm away from each other.

The bell rang thankfully and Delilah couldn't get out of that classroom fast enough. She was gone so fast in fact that she didn't realize her favorite silver necklace, the one that had the wolf and half moon charm on it, had fallen off and onto the classroom floor.

But the gleam of silver caught Paul's eye as he stood and went to leave the room and he bent, picking it up, passing it through his large rough hands a few moments as he stared at the door, his hand in his thick and close cropped dark hair.

Jared nudged his friend and said in amusement, "C'mon, Lahote, let's get to gym.. Maybe you can work some of that frustration out, huh?"

"What frustration, man?"

"Don't give me that, Paul.. I know that look.. I've made that look.. When I imprinted on Kim. You, Paul, have just imprinted on Delilah Rowan.. Now you just have to figure out what you're gonna do about it.."

"Do about it?"

"Well, man, judging by that touching little scene just now, she kinda still thinks you hate her, and she still dislikes you too.. You have to change that."

"Whoa, wait.. It doesn't reverse itself or whatever? I mean that she hated me before I imprinted?"

"Nope.. Because before I imprinted, Kim, Paul, do you remember about how well we actually got along?"

"Yeah, shit, good point.. So.."

"So.."

"I'm fucked, huh?"

"Maybe not.." Jared mused as the two walked into the gym, flopped down into the bleachers nearby the others in their pack.

"What's with him?" Jacob asked as he looked up from a text to his own imprint, to nod at Paul.

"None of your business, Black."

"What the man means, Jacob, is that he imprinted.. On Delilah Rowan."

"The hippie?"

"She's not a hippie, damn it."

"Whoa, Paul, whoa.. Let's try not phasing in the middle of gym class?" Leah asked as she studied the group intently and then snickered a little, nodding to the door of the gym.

The class Delilah was in right now, apparently, Drama, stood in the doorway, filing into the bleachers moments later.

Paul found himself watching her, staring longingly.

And when she looked up, boldly held his gaze, she rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue while scowling before looking back down at some thick and falling apart notebook in her lap.

"I've never heard him this quiet."

"Let's not piss him off, huh?"

"Okay guys, let's let him get his head around it.. Those of us who have imprinted know exactly how the guy feels right now.."

"Technically, no.. Because we didn't imprint on someone we've antagonized since 9th grade." Quil pointed out, barely dodging the wayward lazy punch that Paul sent to his arm that was meant to be a warning.

"I didn't antagonize her."

"Paul, you've actually made the girl break down into tears before. If that's not antagonization.." Leah said as Paul mentally kicked himself, watching her with her friends from across the gym.

How was he going to actually fix all this?

Was it a lost cause?


	2. Nice KISS Shirt Strutter

TWO

Delilah caught sight of him across the cafeteria, sitting with his new friends, staring intently at her and promptly turned in her chair so that her back faced him which caused her friends to laugh and ask what was going on.

She nodded in Paul's direction and stated simply, "That jerk's up to something. Lately, it's like everywhere I am, he pops up mysteriously. And he picked me to be his groupwork partner. Not one of the cheerleaders or any of the other girls in our class, me. Probably just so he can really torment the hell out of me."

"Did you stop and think that maybe he realized that he was only doing all that because he liked you all along? Is he in Sam Uley's cult now? He's always with those same guys. Gotta admit though, Lilah, he's gotten sexy over the summer."

"And if his ego gets any bigger, his head will get stuck in all doorways so it's probably a good idea you don't go telling him that." Delilah mused as she bit into her sandwich, asked her friends "Is he still looking over here? I'm kinda tired of sitting like this."

"Mhmm. Girl, he's looking at you like your on fire and he's got the hose." Felix mused as he licked a pudding spoon and chuckled, watched Delilah wince and visibly become uncomfortable. She'd liked the guy since their 9th grade year but if you even suggested she might like him a little, she'd get mad and storm off or something.

"Eww, Felix, gross."

"It's true."

"No it's not, no, no. A thousand times no." Delilah said as she looked over at Paul's table for a split second, sticking her tongue out at him and standing.

"Where the hell are you going, Lilah? We have to plan the set list we're playing at that party Friday night." her best friend Alicia called out as she slunk past Paul's table, tried not to stiffen her entire body under his unusually intense gaze when she walked past.

"Nice Kiss shirt.. Strutter." Paul called out. He smirked when she froze in her tracks and turned slowly, her eyes practically glowing with anger. It occurred to him how sexy she looked when she got angry but a swift kick underneath the table from Jared who hissed, "Lahote, this is not how you win her over." reminded him that he was trying to be the opposite of the jerk he normally was.

" I'd comment, Lahote but you're really not worth the time. Whatever this crap is? Just stop it already because you're only making yourself look like an ass, not me like you're obviously attempting to do." Delilah grumbled after having walked closer to Paul's table, stopping to stand right beside him, leaning down a little so that she could make sure he clearly heard her, clearly read her lips and understood the words coming out of her mouth currently..

The scent of her, the way her full pink lips curved into this sort of predatory and feisty scowl had him distracted. He was pretty sure he was gaping at her like an ass right now, and anyone who knew him knew he'd only heard maybe two words of her entire lecture to him.

He had it bad and it felt pretty good.

"And stop looking at me like that, damn it, it's weird!" Delilah added in a distracted tone of voice at the end of her lecture, during which she hated admitting, she'd sort of zoned out.. His cologne was a yummy distraction and hints of a tattoo peeked out from beneath a rather form fitting white t shirt. His smirk, as usual, turned her knees to Jello, even as she thought about everything in the book to keep from collapsing into a helpless heap in the floor of the cafeteria.

She stormed off before she got even more distracted, vanishing out of the cafeteria's double doors, her friends hot on her tail and Paul watched her going.

"Well, on a scale of one to ten, that went better than I thought." Quil mused as he took a bite of cornbread, eyed Paul who grumbled under his breath and was for once in a long time, speechless.

"And he says he doesn't antagonize her." Leah mumbled as she looked at Paul and added, "For what it's worth, Paul, she only knows the cocky jackass side of you.. She doesn't see the side we see occasionally.. The one that's at least a little human?"

"Aww, is this a compliment coming from the pack ice queen?" Paul asked, a little more than embarassed currently at how things had went downhill. He'd honestly thought he'd been complimenting her just then, and showing her that he knew things about her kinds of things.

Okay, so in his defense, maybe the remark had sounded one hell of a lot better in his head, but at least he'd been saying in totally honest good intent this time, not like all the times in the past when he'd been vaguely insulting her.

Outside, Delilah paced beneath the tree on the lawns, kicking at invisible things, swearing aloud. Her friends were all rolling in laughter and Felix mused aloud, "Maybe we should lock the two of them in the janitors closet?"

"Don't you dare, Felix, I swear to God.. He knows exactly how to piss me off."

"Girl.. That's more sexual tension than I've ever seen in my life, when you two are having these bizarre little arguments."

"Yeah, how about no, Felix. The guy hates me. I hate him. Besides, he's one of them and I'm kind of me?" Delilah gestured to herself, brow raised, her hand dragging slowly through her hair as she glared angrily at the cafeteria doors.

He'd actually known the name of a Kiss song. Deep down, though she'd never admit it, her heart had sped up a little when he did that cat calling thing as she walked past to come outside.

She'd never have pegged him as having any kind of actual knowledge about something other than sports and cars and that crap he called music.

"Sit down, girl.. Let's talk set list."

"We have to do that song you wrote."

"Yeah, how about no.."

"Lilah, damn it, it's a good song."

"The song blows, Licia. I want to do Shoot to Thrill like the lead in Halestorm's doing at her shows now. Can we play that?"

"I think I have the tabs, yeah.. Ooh, I wanna do Too Fast For Love. And Cherry Bomb.." Alicia said as she added the three songs to their makeshift set list.

Delilah felt eyes on her and when she looked up, there he stood, leaned against a post just outside the cafeteria. She grumbled and swore a little and then muttered "Why the hell does he keep staring at me? This whole unrequited crush thing was a lot easier when he didn't know I existed unless he wanted to give me hell. Now he's staring at me, popping up wherever I go and it's really starting to freak me out."

"Girl.. He likes you. The only time guys look at girls like that is when they have a thing for them." Alicia said confidently as Delilah gave Paul a stiff wave and turned her attention back to the set list for the party they were going to be playing at on Friday night.

And deep down, though she'd withstand every kind of torture possible before she'd admit it, she found herself wondering if Paul would be at said party. Which internally caused her to panic slightly. And then mentally kick herself and remind herself that he was only doing all of this obviously as some kind of joke or something.


	3. Just Keep Calm And I Can't Keep Calm

THREE

"Would you stop looking at me? It's really weird." Delilah hissed as she tried to concentrate on their assignment and not so much on Paul and the way he was sort of just watching her. She didn't even have to be looking up to know that he was looking at her, she could feel the weight of his stare and for her, it was a little weird.

She'd been on the giving end of the stares between the two of them until more recently. Now that she was on the receiving end of them, she found herself thanking her lucky stars that Paul hadn't ever been aware that yes, she liked to watch him. Especially when he was playing football or something after school. There was just something about the way he got on the field, the intensity with which he played.

He loved what he was doing, she could tell, it drew her to watch him. But she'd been fortunate enough that she'd figured out how to do that without being caught by him in the process.

"Why?" Paul asked, smirking a little, reaching out to grab the dissection knife as it nearly slipped from her hands and cut her finger. His reflexes were quicker now since he'd become a shapeshifter, and he kept forgetting that normal people didn't move at the speed of light like shifters or leeches did. So when she looked up at him, brow raised, reaching for the dissection knife, he shrugged it off as he said stiffly, "You're holdin the damn thing wrong."

"No, Paul, I wasn't. I got this just.. Entertain yourself." Delilah insisted stubbornly as she gave him a dirty look.

"Okay, but I'm telling you, you're gonna cut yourself any second now.. Just give me the damned thing."

"Yeah, how about no. I don't want you diagramming this dissection wrong or something."

"I'm actually not an idiot. You do realize this, right?"

"Yes, I realize this.. However, you don't like me.. Therefore, you might diagram it wrong on purpose. And I'm not going to fail this project."

Her nostrils were flaring, her cheeks were flushing a deep scarlet beneath her russet colored skin. He could tell he was really annoying her, but he also knew for a fact that if she didn't watch the way she held the little dissection knife, she'd wind up cutting herself sooner or later. And she was his imprint, he didn't want her getting hurt or something.

The protective urges where she was concerned were driving the shifter right up one wall and down another because earlier this morning, she'd been walking across the school parking lot, her damned headphones in and her music up too loud to hear something and twice before she made it to the actual building, she'd caused someone to slam on the brakes.

And she hadn't even realized it.

And yes, he'd gotten on her case about it before this class started. So she was already in a bit of a mood currently.

"Shit." Delilah mumbled, scowling up at Paul, when as predicted not even a few moments before, the blade knicked one of her fingertips. Paul grabbed a napkin quickly and held it out to her.

Delilah took the napkin and eyed him a few moments as if she wanted to say something, but instead, she kept quiet.

She'd known he was fast when he played football last year from watching all his games.. However, he'd moved with almost lightning like speed and agility just then, it was sort of unreal. She couldn't help but stare at him intently, a confused look on her face.

"If ya don't press down on it, Lilah.."

"It's Delilah."

"Yeah, well I happen to like Lilah better so deal with it. Your friends call ya Lilah." Paul muttered as he took the napkin, pressing down so the blood slowed to a barely noticeable trickle. Okay, so it hadn't been a life threatening injury she'd gotten because she was too damned stubborn to listen to him but damn it, he didn't want her getting hurt at all.

"We're lab partners." Delilah reminded him, a brow raised as she slowly pulled her hand out of his. His skin had literally felt as if it were on fire just now, it alarmed her. And before she could stop herself, she was raising to tiptoe, pressing the back of her hand against his cheek and forehead.

From across the aisle, Jared looked up, smirked to himself.

Paul raised a brow and asked stiffly, "Something wrong?"

"Just that you're burning up you big idiot.. If you have a fever that high why in the hell would you come to school in the first place?"

_'What I've got, Tiny, it's not a fever, exactly.. But the answer to your question is because you're here.. but hey, you're not even remotely close to ready to hear that now are you?' _Paul thought to himself before shrugging and changing the subject abruptly after telling her "I feel fine, damn it. It's a scientific fact, Lilah, guys are hotter than girls when it comes to body temperature."

"Right.. And I know this. But.. Nevermind, damn it." Delilah grumbled, going silent, wondering mentally why she'd even been so concerned to begin with. They didn't get along, not even a little.. And lately, he'd been acting plain weird around her.

His taunts, the smart comments, everything he used to do, she was used to that, she could handle that. This new thing of his? She wasn't sure how to take it, really, and not having a mother in the house to ask these things, well.. It was useless asking her father, he'd just plug his ears and start humming a Meatloaf song or something.

The bell rang and she grabbed her things quickly, made the hastiest retreat she'd ever made from anywhere in her life and the second she was in the girls bathroom, she leaned heavily on the wall and tried to get her heart to stop fluttering like it had a thousand butterflies in it.

She looked into the mirror and gripped the edges of the white porcelain sink beneath as she blew her hair out of her eyes in agitation and muttered to herself, "You have got to get a grip, Lilah. He's just a guy.. A cocky arrogant ass of a guy, yes, but he's just a guy. And you don't let things or people get to you like this, you just don't."

* * *

Leah wanted to burst into laughter inside the stall she sat in, but instead, she smiled a little and made a mental note to tell Paul later that maybe he'd stumbled upon a method of getting to her that was actually working a little and that he needed to keep doing whatever it was that he'd been doing.

The door to the bathroom shut and Leah peeked out, stepping out of the stall when she realized that the bathroom was empty save for her being there. She walked out into the hallway, blended in with the crowd of students rushing to class and scanned the hallways for the rest of the pack. One of them would see Paul before her and if it came from one of them it was more likely that he'd actually listen.

* * *

Delilah raced into the auditorium and slipped into her usual seat between Felix and Alicia and the two or three others they were friends with in class.

"You're late, girl."

"You look pissed."

"It was Paul wasn't it?"

"Am I that obvious?" Delilah muttered as she bit her lower lip and then swore when she heard the doors behind them opening, heard Paul's loud booming laugh and turned to find his class filling the seats in the last row.

"The hell are they doing in here?" Delilah asked after staring at him intently a few moments, turning away quickly when he looked up and around, so he wouldn't see her staring at him.

"Apparently, girl, their teacher is making them help out with the fall musical or try out for it if they want. It's some group thing that the teacher and our teacher came up with." Alicia whispered as she tried not to laugh at how worked up Delilah was currently getting over this.

"But the tryouts for the musical.." Delilah mumbled nervously as she bit her lower lip.. She couldn't try out for the fall musical with him watching her!

"Just ignore him.. Do what you do at our gigs and pretend there's nobody in the room but you."

"But my costume, Alicia, damn it."

"Ooh.. Yeah, I forgot about that little detail." Alicia said as she giggled a little and then said "Relax, Lilah."

"Relax? You're seriously telling me to relax? I can't do that, Alicia, damn it. He's sitting right back..."

The teacher's stern voice cut into their conversation and she felt eyes on her. She sank down into her chair wishing she could disappear into the floor or something.

Apparently, the gym teacher volunteered up the students in the class who weren't on a sports team to come in and help out with the fall musical.

"Someone up there really has it in for me." Delilah mumbled as she bit her lower lip and turned to find that yes, Paul was watching her intently with that look in his eyes again.

"Why the hell does he keep looking at me like that? And what happened to him playing football, I wonder? I could've sworn he was on the football team this year."

Felix leaned in and shaking his head he whispered, "Rumor going around is that Lahote quit during spring training last year. He and the coach had words and he walked out of practice."

"Great."


End file.
